Sunday, June 22, 2008

Made purple belt in brazilian jiu jitsu

This weekend is one to be remembered. Out of the blue (no pun intended) I make purple belt in BJJ (white - blue - purple - brown - black) and our GGAFL nationals footy team wins a regional qualifier for 2008 USAFL National tournament (we’re trying to make Division 1). Woot! I love both these sports.

I’ve been training BJJ seriously hard over the last year and a half since receiving my blue, typically 4 days a week when not traveling and visiting local academies across the national when I am. Sprinkle in some running, weights, and footy and my stamina/skill is somewhat reasonable. Now if I could just be more disciplined about my diet, 221 lbs should be in reach within the next 6-8 weeks for competition.

A dislocated shoulder about a month ago set things back and is taking forever to heal. Ugh! It’s extremely painful to push or pull when my arm is extended so I have to keep it bent and use my elbow for everything. I also have to make sure no one grabs onto it otherwise its tap city. And I hate tapping, the thing I failed to do and the cause of the injury (stupid). I’ve also noticed that when injured my technical game comes up a lot faster than it would have otherwise.

You see if you can’t use any much of any strength you are forced to rely more on technique and strategy. Speed, strength, and technique are basically the three ways to beat someone. At my size speed is unreliable :). For me if I stop training altogether to heal or get frustrated my game and stamina goes down fast. For those in BJJ they know nursing minor injuries is just part of the sport.

While I really hadn’t realized it over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been taping everyone in the academy (blues and purples) one after the other. I guess it looked weird for me to NOT have a purple belt, even if I’m early, so here I am. A whole new level, the realm of leg locks, and pursuing journey to the brown.

Congrats on the purple. It takes some serious dedication to get to that level. I separated my shoulder about a couple of years ago, which happen to be about 2 months before a tourney. I eased off on the training a little leading up to the tourney, hoping it would get better. During my 3rd match of the tournament, it was separated again as I tried to spin under my opponent (I was turtled with him on top) and get an omaplata. All my weight and his popped the shoulder again. Needless to say, I was forced to take time off to heal, so that put a serious damper in the training/competing dept.

Good luck in your tournament. Black belt is just around the (long and painful) corner! :)

Congrats on the purple! I work in InfoSec and I've seen your name at Security Conferences, but have yet to attend any of your WebAppSec sessions. Anyways, I'm big into BJJ and InfoSec, looks like you are too. Keep up the good work. ~ David G (Atlanta)

Thanks David, your among friends here. I've met at least 2-3 dozen people inside infosec that train martial arts of some sort, heavy bias towards BJJ. I was quite shocked when I first found out popular the sport was in our industry.

Thanks for the welcome Jeremiah...and if you're ever in Atlanta and looking for some place to get your jitsu fix, you should come check out where I train - Alliancebjj.com You may know us as the 2008 PanAm and Mundial Champions! I'm very lucky to train at such a good school under Jacare and Cobrinha. And btw, I should be testing for my purple within the next month so I can imagine the feeling of accomplishment that you must have!

I don't get out to Atlanta much, but I have heard/seen the alliance team - good stuff. But cmon, who in BJJ hasn't heard of Jacare! That guy kicks major ass and have seen many of his matches on video. I'll have to see when next I'm out that way.

I find this doubly impressive factoring in how much you traveled during your run up from Blue to Purple. I've lived on the road before and -- time away, challenge to work out at all, hard to find healthy food, etc. etc. make as big a challenge as just getting to a dojo.

thanks Arian. Takes an understanding and supportive wife as well. Plus being able to take the kids to class with me helps a lot as well. I'm dead set on making sure my lil girl is a BJJ badass by the time she's sixteen. That would definitely give me a sense of comfort during those years.

About Me

Jeremiah Grossman's career spans nearly 20 years and has lived a literal lifetime in computer security to become one of the industry's biggest names. He has received a number of industry awards, been publicly thanked by Microsoft, Mozilla, Google, Facebook, and many others for his security research. Jeremiah has written hundreds of articles and white papers. As an industry veteran, he has been featured in hundreds of media outlets around the world. Jeremiah has been a guest speaker on six continents at hundreds of events including many top universities. All of this was after Jeremiah served as an information security officer at Yahoo!